Bribed Union officials?

Local20

Member
Newbie here,

I was wondering how many hubs around the country try to bribe their union representatives? Here at Local20 UPS Hub, it's common practice for management to buy our union stewards. Our stewards don't work, they sit in offices and drink coffee, watch several managers perform our work on a daily basis, and constantly defend management when someone objects to them doing our Union work. It's nuts here! There's a reason this Hub has been the #1 UPS hub in the country 6 out of the last 7 years. It's because part-time supervisors do a majority of the work, and they send the Teamster members home. They even went so far as giving the stewards company jackets with their names on them, and this past award gave them all gold watches. It's amazing to reward stewards that sit in offices all night with gold watches. How is this possible?

For reference you might want to check out this post on their message board. Click Union Bribe below.

Union Bribe

I can't understand it. We pay outrageous dues for them to represent the contract, and it's all thrown out the window. There was even a article Upsers.com that talked about the stewards playing a huge role in their success.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Newbie here,
I was wondering how many hubs around the country try to bribe their union representatives? Here at Local20 UPS Hub, it's common practice for management to buy our union stewards. Our stewards don't work, they sit in offices and drink coffee They even went so far as giving the stewards company jackets with their names on them, and this past award gave them all gold watches. .
I call B.S.....UPS may be corrupt, but there is no way thy are going to pay an hourly to sit around and drink coffee. They are just too cheap. UPS wont spend a nickel until they rub it for a year or two, and even then they want change.
 

Local20

Member
I call B.S.....UPS may be corrupt, but there is no way thy are going to pay an hourly to sit around and drink coffee. They are just too cheap.

It actually makes perfect sense for them to do it. Numerous supervisors working in place of lazy stewards that walk around and do nothing. Half the time they sit in a office. Just read the many replies to that post on their board. No grievances, and the ones that do go in disappear! What a joke. Here's the link to Local 20's website. Click Bulletin Board and it will take you to the message board I provided above.

Local 20 website

The other note that I didn't mention above was how sick the members are of this B.S. We just had a steward election a little over a year ago. We had over 100 union members show up at the hall to elect new stewards. Needless to say the Union by-passed the members wishes. The union by-laws are specific on how many stewards there should be, and it should have went to a vote down there. Instead, they nominated their old stewards with the the nominations of the members chosen stewards. This is where it got shady. They made up this so called "Lead" steward system. None of the new stewards are allowed to do anything without the permission of the "lead" stewards. So the company continues to use the stewards of their choice while the new ones are cast away. They can't even turn in grievances without the permission of the "lead" stewards. The lead stewards shouldn't even been in, yet alone in charge of everything. Totally corrupt! It's disgusting. So yes, they do drink coffee in offices, and sit back with their feet up. Unless of-course they are selling a brother or sister down the river.
 

Local20

Member
Can you say "troll"?

:knockedout:Sorry for sharing our Local's concerns. Our problems may come your way in the near future. Then maybe you'll give a hoot. If you don't think cooperate is looking into why this hub has been #1 six out of the last seven years. Then you had better put your head back into the sand.
 

tieguy

Banned
Man local20 number one in the country 5 of the last 6 years? Thats an incredible accomplishment. What do you attribute to your success?
 

Local20

Member
Man local20 number one in the country 5 of the last 6 years? Thats an incredible accomplishment. What do you attribute to your success?

Management working the system. More sups working, and less hourly employees working. All adds up to a better production rate.

We're probably moving the same amount of packages as the many other hubs, but this hub isn't getting charged the labor hours for staffing.
 
You do know that you can go over the head of your local to the national level. Right?

I resend my question, reading a few posts from your message board indicates this goes on up to National. Maybe you should get Griff and the NLRB involved/
 
Last edited:
Can you say "troll"?


I've been watching this board for a few months now, but this is my first post. I gotta chuckle that this thread is dismissed as a "troll" thread while you guys actually believed the post from the loader that was treated like gold by his sups but given a hard time by his fellow Teamsters. That was a sham thread if I ever saw one.

Anyway.............I work in the Toledo hub (Which is actually located in Maumee, OH.) and it is worse than described. I guess your disbelief is a good sign because it would indicate that our situation is not the norm throughout the country. I wonder, though. Do any of you work in the hub? What are the conditions in your hub? Do they actually follow the contract?

I remember when I filed a greivance over supervisors working. In a meeting to "resolve the issue" the sort manager pulled a contract out of his desk. He held it up and said, "See this? I've never opened it. I don't care what's in here. I do what I think is right and I run the hub the way I want to." The lead steward sat there staring at the wall, and said nothing. And that was before they had totally sold out!

UPS owns Local 20. End of story. The stewards were never very good, but if you could argue your own case they would at least agree with you on contact issues. Over the last five to seven years the sell out has become complete. Now they talk for mngmt. Some senior employees have even told the stewards to be quiet and let mngmt. talk when they are pulled aside for a union contact. The young kids just stand there with the deer in the headlights look.

Almost all of the workers in the hub try to "fly under the radar" because anyone who spoke out, or heaven forbid, tried to enforce the contract was made a target for harassment. (Over and above the usual harrassment.) Now we have some new stewards that are trying to make changes. The local leadership has done everything they can to maintain the status quo and have been pretty effective in blocking the new stewards.

Toledo, Ohio is a town in which people were killed in the early days of the labor movement. Men were killed trying to form unions and gain the rights that we benefit from. Local 20 is pathetic. I really hope it isn't this way all over the country.

We have complained to our local leadership about the situation. We have listed specific issues and incidents. They can't claim that they don't know what is going on. It is still business as usual. I used to think they were just weak and not very smart. Now I realize they are corrupt.

Where we go from here is the question................................................
 
Man local20 number one in the country 5 of the last 6 years? Thats an incredible accomplishment. What do you attribute to your success?


Local 20 is number one? That depends on your perspective. Most of the membership thinks Local 20 stinks. The company loves them.

Now then, the Toledo hub has been ranked number one for a number of years. How do they do it? Well, we have a hard working bunch of Teamsters in here, but a lot of it can be attributed to pure UPS methods. Manipulate the data, cheat, etc. They get the union to agree to work rules that violate our contract. Good stuff like that.

I recall a conversation with a sup who has left the company in which he said that our hub's numbers were "all smoke and mirrors." He was proud of the cleverness of our hub manager in being able to pull it off.
 
I call B.S.....UPS may be corrupt, but there is no way thy are going to pay an hourly to sit around and drink coffee. They are just too cheap. UPS wont spend a nickel until they rub it for a year or two, and even then they want change.


Think of it this way. You take a couple of union stewards that were really weak workers and a drag on the operation. You have them do "union business" all day long. In exchange you can have an unlimited number of sups work "in their place" and they agree to almost anything you want. If you are UPS management this is a slam dunk, no brainer. If anyone complains about anything or tries to enforce the contract you call in your bought off steward. If someone wants to file on sups working these stewards were magically watching them. Amazing!
 
:knockedout:Sorry for sharing our Local's concerns. Our problems may come your way in the near future. Then maybe you'll give a hoot. If you don't think cooperate is looking into why this hub has been #1 six out of the last seven years. Then you had better put your head back into the sand.


Corporate bought their BS. "We work together, etc." As for our hub's mngmt., are too greedy to let any other hub in on the secret.

However......I'm sure that since this has been on this board there will be more hub managers trying to do the same thing.
 

tieguy

Banned
Management working the system. More sups working, and less hourly employees working. All adds up to a better production rate.

We're probably moving the same amount of packages as the many other hubs, but this hub isn't getting charged the labor hours for staffing.

Production is one small part of the hub rankings. You also have your safety results, turnover , misloads, smalls percentage, origin , intermediate, departure scans, left in building etc

Sounds like you have a lot of hourlys who also do a terrific job in toledo. With that said I think you are for lack of better words pissing on their parade when you try to say its management working that is getting the good overall results.

With this argument you are putting down your union reps, management and all your coworkers who helped get those results.
 

tieguy

Banned
Can you say "troll"?


I've been watching this board for a few months now, but this is my first post. I gotta chuckle that this thread is dismissed as a "troll" thread while you guys actually believed the post from the loader that was treated like gold by his sups but given a hard time by his fellow Teamsters. That was a sham thread if I ever saw one.

The more you read that thread the more you realized the guy was being honest. He also complained about the job being tough. With that said you have a lot of threads started by new posters that could be trolls. Just like you're a new poster here so its possible you could be local 20 posting under another ID. One never knows for sure on these message boards.


I remember when I filed a greivance over supervisors working. In a meeting to "resolve the issue" the sort manager pulled a contract out of his desk. He held it up and said, "See this? I've never opened it. I don't care what's in here. I do what I think is right and I run the hub the way I want to." The lead steward sat there staring at the wall, and said nothing. And that was before they had totally sold out!

The steward does not have to say anything in that meeting. Having dealt with that manager more then you have he may have known the words would be wasted. The real question is what did he do with the grievance after the hub manager denied it. Did he bump it up to the next step or did he squash it?

UPS owns Local 20. End of story. The stewards were never very good, but if you could argue your own case they would at least agree with you on contact issues. Over the last five to seven years the sell out has become complete. Now they talk for mngmt.

thats an interesting twist to a grievance or disciplinary process that i have not heard until recently. I know when I pull someone in the office I will review the reason with the steward and allow him to talk to the person first as a professional courtesy to the steward. If you think about it doing so it actually gives the steward the advantage of reviewing the information with you so you are not surprised when you walk in. This gives you more time to get your thoughts together and be able to give a credible explanation. I never thought anyone would take that courtesy and use it to make the steward look bad. In fact you should view it as a benifit of having a strong steward.

Almost all of the workers in the hub try to "fly under the radar" because anyone who spoke out, or heaven forbid, tried to enforce the contract was made a target for harassment. (Over and above the usual harrassment.) Now we have some new stewards that are trying to make changes. The local leadership has done everything they can to maintain the status quo and have been pretty effective in blocking the new stewards.

New stewards tend to come in like a bull in a china closet until they learn how to do their job.

Toledo, Ohio is a town in which people were killed in the early days of the labor movement. Men were killed trying to form unions and gain the rights that we benefit from. Local 20 is pathetic. I really hope it isn't this way all over the country.

then build a consensus and vote the guys out if you don't think you are getting what you paid for.
 

Local20

Member
Production is one small part of the hub rankings. You also have your safety results, turnover , misloads, smalls percentage, origin , intermediate, departure scans, left in building etc

I can fill in two of the other blanks. Safety results are tweaked by management working with the stewards. Injury's are brought into the office, and they are convinced no matter how bad it is to work with the company and not make it a recordable injury. They come into work and watch supervisors until they think they are healthy enough to work again. Not ever really knowing how bad their injury may have been. I've seen people sent home who could have had concussions from steel falling out of the top of the walls, or faulty flaps coming down and slamming them in the head. It always leads to the same deal. You go in with no defense, unless your lacerated too deep for them to even overlook. It has to be hard for an hourly employee to make that call, when management and the union are begging you to give it some time and work with them. Seeing if the injury improves.

The 2nd way this hub got you was with their computer system. I'm not sure how they do it, but someone set it up to detect misloads as they were put in trailers. My understanding is that it's using the customer tracking system, and doing literally hundred's of tracking numbers at the same time. They have part-time supervisors sit there behind computers, and look for packages that shouldn't be going to a particular destination. Then they run down and dig it out of the trailer. I know this is a fact, because I've had a couple brought to me that I mis-loaded, and they sat me with a steward to show me. For whatever reason since they received the award they have not been doing it anymore. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure corporate had something to do with it.

I'm not sure who "Unbreakable" is, but I do tend to agree with most of his statements.
 
Can you say "troll"?
then build a consensus and vote the guys out if you don't think you are getting what you paid for.
This from Local20's post on 03/22/08 @ 10:59 pm
The other note that I didn't mention above was how sick the members are of this B.S. We just had a steward election a little over a year ago. We had over 100 union members show up at the hall to elect new stewards. Needless to say the Union by-passed the members wishes. The union by-laws are specific on how many stewards there should be, and it should have went to a vote down there. Instead, they nominated their old stewards with the the nominations of the members chosen stewards. This is where it got shady. They made up this so called "Lead" steward system. None of the new stewards are allowed to do anything without the permission of the "lead" stewards. So the company continues to use the stewards of their choice while the new ones are cast away. They can't even turn in grievances without the permission of the "lead" stewards. The lead stewards shouldn't even been in, yet alone in charge of everything. Totally corrupt! It's disgusting. So yes, they do drink coffee in offices, and sit back with their feet up. Unless of-course they are selling a brother or sister down the river.
 
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